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Thursday, September 15, 2011

How do they do it? The roadmap of the anti-equality forces

Writing over at Pam's House Blend, Alvin McEwan lays out the roadmap used by the anti-equality forces over, and over, and over again. A must-read.

The North Carolina Legislature has passed a bill to allow its citizens to vote on a state constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

The majority of folks in NC are against this amendment but that is considered a minor detail by the organizations and people pushing it.
...

The untold narrative usually goes like this:

People in the targeted states are so generally worried about more pressing issues that they allow their legislatures to be the first salvo in what can be called an invasion, i.e. laying the groundwork by passing a bill, thereby forcing constituents to vote on the matter.

Then an organization – usually the National Organization for Marriage – is the second part of the invasion via its virtually unlimited funds supplied by secret donors (which the group has fought tooth and nail not to reveal), that pays for the inundation of robocalls, mailers, and commercials spinning a multitude of lies about gays harming children or gays persecuting Christians, or gays causing all sorts of mayhem in general if the amendment is not passed.

At the same time, the organization stroke the egos of area pastors and public leaders....

The organization – again usually NOM – wins the vote and while it brays about how “the community stood up to protect marriage,” the community in actuality deals with strife, hard feelings, broken families, and generally not understanding why their votes to “protect marriage” hasn’t put food on their tables, more money in their paychecks, or made their lives better.

All of this is documented from all the past battles: Prop8 (CA), Question 1 (ME), etc etc. Now we have Amendment 1 (NC), as well as the vote in Minnesota. The lies begin. The hate. The families and friends divided. We still haven't recovered in California. The damage was huge. That's what MN and NC face next. Sadly, that will be true regardless of the outcome--becuase the damage is done not just by the vote, but by the campaign.